I write about the Internet technologies and upstarts that are disrupting advertising and media faster than ever. I'm living this disruption, so I might as well write about it, too. I spent nine years as chief of BusinessWeek's Silicon Valley bureau writing about the leading edge of technology and business, and I continue to do so for a variety of publications. Follow my posts here by clicking the "+ Follow" link under my name. You can also find me at my personal Web site RobHof.com, follow me on Twitter (robhof), Circle me on Google+, subscribe to me on Facebook, and email me (robert.hof@gmail.com).

Yahoo Needs New Investors Who Will Shut Up For The Next Year Or Two

At first, it looked like investors more or less liked what they saw in Yahoo‘s fourth-quarter earnings results on Monday, pushing the shares up about 1.5% in after-hours trading. After sleeping on it, though, they instead sliced 3% off the stock today, sending it below $20 again.

What happened? Clearly, investors woke up to remember that, in fact, Yahoo isn’t really in much of a different position than before–challenged on all sides, with a not-yet-clear path out of the malaise that has plagued the company for more years than anybody cares to remember.

But here’s the thing: Not a single one of those investors should have expected any substantial improvement in Yahoo’s results or short-term outlook by now. Each of the countless CEOs on parade before Marissa Mayer joined last July begged for patience. It’s completely understandable why investors grew weary of their entreaties. At some point in the last five years or so, one of them should have been able to deliver, no?

But none did, putting Yahoo in a deeper hole each time the executive suite changed hands. So Mayer, and by implication the entirely new Yahoo board that hired her, made it very clear that if Yahoo was finally going to get serious about turning itself around, it would take years, not months, to accomplish.

Yet the last thing these investors and analysts should be doing is banging on Mayer and Yahoo to move faster. News flash: This job won’t be fast. That doesn’t mean Mayer and her Yahoos shouldn’t be urgent about fixing tired media properties, creating new and more engaging experiences, going mobile, wooing back more big advertisers–the list seems endless, doesn’t it? But they need a little breathing room to get that chain reaction going, not to mention come up with a better metaphor that doesn’t imply nuclear annihilation.

If Mayer & Co. are going to turn around Yahoo in a way no one else ever figured out, they’re going to need more people like Yoshikami to buy Yahoo stock. And hold it. And, for the time being, keep their mouths shut.

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